Research on spatial and temporal differences of carbon emissions and influencing factors in eight economic regions of China based on LMDI model.

With the gradual increase of international willingness to reach the carbon peak and carbon neutrality, this paper decomposes the influencing factors of China's carbon emission changes from 2008 to 2019 using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index model (LMDI), and analyzes the contribution amount and rate of each influencing factor. The results found that: for the whole country, the cumulative growth of carbon emissions during the study period is about 416,484.47 (104 tons), among which the economic growth effect plays a major role in promoting, with a cumulative contribution rate of 284.16%; The increase in regulation intensity and the optimization of industrial structure, however, suppress carbon emissions well, with a cumulative contribution rate of about - 199.21% and - 64.75%, respectively, during the study period. For economic regions, the cumulative influence direction of each driver is the same as that of the whole country, while the population size effect in the northeast economic region and the regulation input effect in the eastern coastal economic region act in the opposite direction from other economic regions, and the carbon emission reduction direction of the energy intensity effect varies from one economic region to another. Accordingly, this paper proposes policy recommendations to enhance regulatory intensity, optimize industrial and energy consumption structure, implement localized emission reduction strategies, and promote synergistic emission reduction in economic zones.

The impact of Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot on urban green innovation: the case of China.

As an essential part of ecological civilization, water ecological civilization has significant influence on the green and sustainable development of cities. Under the background of China's Water Ecological Civilization City Pilot (WECCP), based on data from 275 cities in China from 2007 to 2019 by using the difference-in-differences (DID) model, we empirically analyzed the influence of the WECCP establishment on urban green innovation and explored the impact mechanism in depth using a mediating effect model, which aimed to verify whether the "Porter hypothesis" holds true in China. The result indicated that the WECCP had made a remarkable contribution to enhancing urban green innovation in the pilot cities. Further research found that the input mechanism played an important mediating role. In addition, the heterogeneity test indicated that cities in the central region, at low administrative levels, and in the first batch of pilots gained more from the policy establishment. This paper has theoretical implications for understanding the derived innovation benefits of the environmental policy, practical implications for identifying new drivers of urban innovation, and provides related experience for the country to further promote and expand water ecological civilization construction and useful policy inspiration for other developing countries to formulate ecological and environmental policies.

Study on the measurement of industrial eco-efficiency, spatial distribution and influencing factors in Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Nowadays, China insists on the strategy of ecological priority and green development, and the Yangtze River Economic Belt is a pioneering demonstration belt for the construction of ecological civilization in China. Promoting industrial ecological efficiency is of great significance to Chinese sustainable development and high-quality economic development. Based on the provincial panel data of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region from 2011 to 2020, we use the super-efficient slacks-based measure of efficiency SBM model to measure the industrial eco-efficiency of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, reveal the spatial differences in industrial eco-efficiency of different provincial units, and explore the industrial eco-efficiency. The results show that: (1) from the perspective of the Yangtze River Economic Belt as a whole, industrial eco-efficiency is on a stable upward trend, but the efficiency level is not high, and there is more room for improvement; (2) in terms of the spatial distribution of industrial eco-efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, there are significant differences, with industrial eco-efficiency in the downstream region being higher than that in the midstream region and the upstream region, and the lowest in the midstream region, while in terms of the spatial distribution pattern, the industrial eco-efficiency of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt eco-efficiency has a significant positive spatial autocorrelation; (3) in terms of influencing factors, economic development level, factor endowment, and foreign investment can significantly influence industrial eco-efficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The study's result helps provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for promoting the green and ecological development of industries in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Threshold Effect of Environmental Regulation and Green Innovation Efficiency: From the Perspective of Chinese Fiscal Decentralization and Environmental Protection Inputs.

In the context of China's 14th Five-Year Plan and 2035 visionary goals of national economic and social development, to achieve the national dual carbon goals, an innovation-driven green development strategy must be implemented, and the relationship between environmental regulation and green innovation efficiency must be clarified. Based on the DEA-SBM model, in this study, we measured the green innovation efficiency of 30 provinces and cities in China from 2011 to 2020 by introducing environmental regulation as the core explanatory variable, and two threshold variables, environmental protection input and fiscal decentralization, to empirically analyze the threshold effect of environmental regulation on green innovation efficiency. We found that: (1) The green innovation efficiency of 30 provinces and municipalities in China is spatially distributed as strong in the east and weak in the west. (2) A double-threshold effect exists with environmental protection input as the threshold variable. Environmental regulation showed an inverted N-shaped relationship of first inhibiting, then promoting, and finally inhibiting green innovation efficiency. (3) A double-threshold effect exists with fiscal decentralization as the threshold variable. Environmental regulation showed an inverted N-shaped relationship of inhibiting, promoting, and then inhibiting green innovation efficiency. The study results provide theoretical guidance and practical reference for China to achieve the dual carbon goal.

Impact of Digital Economy Development on Carbon Emission Efficiency: A Spatial Econometric Analysis Based on Chinese Provinces and Cities.

In the realistic context of the development of China's digital economy and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, to efficiently achieve high-quality economic and green and low-carbon transformation, this paper investigates the impact of digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency of 30 Chinese provinces and cities from 2011-2019. In this paper, firstly, the digital economy development index and carbon emission efficiency are calculated by the entropy method and the Super-SBM-Undesirable Model. Secondly, the Spatial Lag Model (SAR) and the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) are respectively constructed under the adjacency matrix and the geographic distance matrix to empirically test the spatial impact of the digital economy on carbon emission efficiency. The results show that: the digital economy development and carbon emission efficiency of Chinese provinces and cities both show the spatial distribution characteristics of stronger in the East and weaker in the Middle and West; the digital economy development in Chinese provinces and cities has a significantly positive direct and spatial spillover effect on carbon emission efficiency; there are differences in the direct and spatial spillover effects of various dimensions of the digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency in Chinese provinces and cities; the direct effect of the digital economy development on the carbon emission efficiency in Chinese provinces and cities has significant regional heterogeneity among eastern, central, and western regions. This paper provides new empirical evidence for developing countries such as China to proactively develop a digital economy to promote energy conservation and emission reduction to realize green and low-carbon transformation.

Influence Mechanism of Different Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emission Efficiency.

The rational use of environmental regulation tools has become an important means by which to improve the efficiency of carbon emissions. Different types of environmental regulations and their combinations have different impacts on carbon emission efficiency. In order to determine the environmental regulation configurations that may achieve high carbon emission efficiency or lead to low carbon emission efficiency, we constructed an analytical framework of connections between environmental regulation configurations and carbon emission efficiency. Moreover, 30 Chinese provinces from the period covering 2016 to 2019 were selected as research cases. In addition, the super slacks-based measure of efficiency (SE-SBM) model was applied to evaluate carbon emission efficiency. Finally, the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was employed to analyze the impact of different environmental regulation configurations on carbon emission efficiency. The results showed that the carbon emission efficiency of various regions of China is generally low (with most regions not having reached an effective level) and that there are large regional differences. We found that there are four environmental regulation configurations that can achieve high carbon emission efficiency and two environmental regulation configurations that lead to low carbon emission efficiency. Based on these configurations, we draw three conclusions: (1) There are three paths to achieving high carbon emission efficiency: one that values command-and-control environmental regulation but disfavors market-incentive environmental regulation, another that combines command-and-control environmental regulation with market-incentive environmental regulation, and a third that couples command-and-control environmental regulation with voluntary environmental regulation. (2) Two paths that may lead to low carbon emission efficiency were established: excessive penalties and the lack of specific measures. (3) In some conditions, environmental governance investment and fiscal expenditure could be substituted for each other; environmental protection administrative penalties and pollution charges are synchronized; environmental governance investment in the promotion of carbon emission efficiency is indispensable. Policies and suggestions on how the government can use environmental regulation tools to improve carbon emission efficiency are proposed from a general coordinative perspective in the final section of this paper.

Preoperative infrarenal abdominal aorta balloon catheter occlusion combined with Bakri tamponade reduced maternal morbidity of placenta increta/percreta.

BACKGROUND: Placenta increta/percreta is an increasingly common and life-threatening obstetric complication. It poses a management challenge to clinicians. The present study aimed to evaluate efficacy and safety of preoperative placement of infrarenal abdominal aorta balloon catheter (IAABC) alone or combined with Bakri tamponade for the management of cases with placenta increta/percreta. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed all cases with placenta increta/percreta at a tertiary referral teaching hospital in China between the year 2014 and 2017. Statistical analysis considered the individual subgroups: IAABC placed group and control group (without IAABC), and compared their maternal-fetal outcomes. RESULTS: The study covered 86 cases with placenta increta. For cases in the IAABC placed group (n = 48), significant reductions were noted in maternal morbidity including estimated blood loss (EBL), EBL ≥ 2000 mL, blood products transfusions, postpartum hemorrhage, operative time, intensive care unit admission, and postoperative days (P < .05 for all). The overall rate of hysterectomy was much lower (4.2%vs 23.7%, P = .018), compared with those in the control group (n = 38). Furthermore, in the IAABC placed group, hysterectomy was avoided in a further 17 cases combined with Bakri tamponade. In the control group, 10 cases were successful in preserving uterus by Bakri tamponade. Four cases failed and needed reoperation (3 uterine arterial embolism, 1 hysterectomy). There were no differences in fetal outcomes between the 2 groups. Eighteen cases were diagnosed with placenta percreta. Almost all the cases (17/18) inevitably underwent caesarean hysterectomy. Only 1 case was treated with a combination of IAABC and Bakri tamponade, and successfully reserved uterus. No differences were observed in any other outcomes, except for a significant less mean operative time (P = .017) in cases with IAABC placed (n = 10), compared with those without IAABC (n = 8). Only 1 case had a femoral artery thrombosis directly related to IAABC placement and recovered after conservative treatment. There was no maternal or neonatal death in this study. CONCLUSION: Prophylactic insertion of IAABC alone or combined with Bakri tamponade should be safe and effective in controlling intraoperative bleeding due to placenta increta, thus hysterectomy could be avoided. It seems to be less beneficial to women with placenta percreta. Bakri tamponade can be a good choice in the management of placenta increta/percreta before more aggressive surgeries.